Top 100 Kenneth Branagh Quotes
#2. Even in the case of a god, audiences - paradoxically - enjoy recognizing the human traits.
Kenneth Branagh
#4. I liked the fact that 'My Week With Marilyn' wasn't a biopic.
Kenneth Branagh
#5. Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more, and don't get so worked up about things.
Kenneth Branagh
#6. Even if people are all from the same place, there can be very, very different approaches. It's one of the things I'm fascinated by. It's why I like directing. I like to see how different people approach trying to be truthful, on camera or in the theater, and whether you can make them match up.
Kenneth Branagh
#7. When I'm acting, I'm in the director's hands. I'm very happy to be. I like to be focused on what I'm doing.
Kenneth Branagh
#8. I think television goes through phases, like other creative arts, where suddenly a group of people are producing exciting work all at once.
Kenneth Branagh
#9. You go to the airport and look at the bookstand, and you feel the titles are similar, the covers are similar, and you wonder how they can be different.
Kenneth Branagh
#10. It's very strange that the people you love are often the people you're most cruel to.
Kenneth Branagh
#11. To look out of a car in Scania, you see a painting on the horizontal - one windmill, one tiny farmhouse, acres of beet or grass.
Kenneth Branagh
#12. I think in the wake of the domination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, everyone is now looking for a grand plan.
Kenneth Branagh
#15. I live in the English countryside, so I'm surrounded by magpies.
Kenneth Branagh
#16. Sir Derek Jacobi has been an inspiration to so many actors and audiences throughout his brilliant career. To see him in Shakespeare is an event in itself.
Kenneth Branagh
#17. The Chinese say, 'It's good to live in interesting times.'
Kenneth Branagh
#18. I was stuck in a wheelchair playing this deranged villain. I felt this mass amount of rage at being so confined. I thought, 'What can I do that is the direct opposite of this situation?' The only thing I could think of was that I could sing and dance.
Kenneth Branagh
#19. Shakespeare is rhythmic; he is musical in the sense that he likes poetry, and he's musical because he constantly refers to settings where there's singing and dancing.
Kenneth Branagh
#20. There are some amazing stories from all over this country, where people's work and contribution has been acknowledged. To be part of that is an absolutely fantastic feeling.
Kenneth Branagh
#21. A brother who is unhappy is a dangerous relative to have.
Kenneth Branagh
#22. I did 'Celebrity' by Woody Allen. I did 'The Gingerbread Man' with Robert Altman. These were big talents.
Kenneth Branagh
#23. I went to a comprehensive school and didn't go to university.
Kenneth Branagh
#26. I don't find myself so exercised by a desperation to be new.
Kenneth Branagh
#27. Friendship is one of the most tangible things in a world which offers fewer and fewer supports.
Kenneth Branagh
#28. I only really cast people who are desperate to be in it - who were dying to be in it, whose talent I believed in and were dead ready to do the work that was necessary.
Kenneth Branagh
#31. The long version of the play is actually an easier version to follow. In all of the cut versions the intense speeches are cut too close together for the audience and the actors.
Kenneth Branagh
#32. The glory of 70mm is the sharpness of the image it offers.
Kenneth Branagh
#33. 'Frankenstein' feels like an ancient tale, the kind of traditional story that appears in many other forms.
Kenneth Branagh
#34. For all the cynicism that the world contains, people are a little more open to those things that maybe are to do with returning you to some kind of simpler, happier state.
Kenneth Branagh
#35. Don't stand up when you can sit down and don't sit down when you can lie down.
Kenneth Branagh
#36. In Northern Ireland, I truly, effortlessly, knew who I was. I knew where I belonged. I felt completely and utterly secure.
Kenneth Branagh
#37. The BAFTA is both absolutely fantastic and sort of meaningless at the same time.
Kenneth Branagh
#38. My dad, for the first 15 years of my career, on every visit he made to a play or a film set, would find the oldest person on set and say, 'Do you think my son has a future?'
Kenneth Branagh
#39. Many of us live in dysfunctional families, and so even if it's in a fairy tale, or perhaps because it's in a fairy tale, we have a chance to look at that side of our reflected lives differently.
Kenneth Branagh
#40. In the course of my lifetime, that world went from violence to a kind of peace.
Kenneth Branagh
#41. I'll tell you what I'm grateful for, and that's the clarity of understanding that the most important things in life are health, family and friends, and the time to spend on them.
Kenneth Branagh
#42. I've lived a lot of my life in London, so I often feel that I am a Londoner.
Kenneth Branagh
#43. I think we love the escapism of something like 'Cinderella,' and I think we do with 'Thor.'
Kenneth Branagh
#45. Hamlet and Victor Frankenstein are each obsessed with death. Hamlet's whole story is a philosophical preparation for death; Victor's is an intellectual refusal to accept it.
Kenneth Branagh
#47. There is some mysterious thing that goes on whereby, in the process of playing Shakespeare continuously, actors are surprised by the way the language actually acts on them.
Kenneth Branagh
#48. I like to cast actors I admire, one's that are talented. Each one will bring something new to the part. This play has been done thousands of times and now certain characters are too familiar.
Kenneth Branagh
#49. There's always something to think about in terms of problems that are dark and important and immediate and scary.
Kenneth Branagh
#50. For what it's worth, I enjoy 'Dexter,' 'Modern Family,' 'True Blood' and 'Breaking Bad.' I've enjoyed the wonderful 'The Pacific.'
Kenneth Branagh
#51. I did not make this a long film for its own sake. I wanted to make an entertaining film and offer it out there for those who want to see it. If word of mouth suggests there is an audience out there, hopefully their cinema will show it.
Kenneth Branagh
#53. I think A Midsummer Night's Dream would be terrific because of the transformations that occur. Or The Tempest, things like that. Extraordinary larger than life or supernatural element.
Kenneth Branagh
#54. I have a pathetic urge at some stage in my life to be able to pull out my wallet and pull out a little card on which it would say, 'Kenneth Branagh, artistic director.'
Kenneth Branagh
#55. What I've found about 'Cinderella' is that what it provokes in an audience is really extraordinary. It appears to be a deceptively simple tale, but I've heard nothing but people drawing all different things out of it.
Kenneth Branagh
#56. When you cast someone like Natalie Portman, the character can't just be the love interest.
Kenneth Branagh
#57. I think that Shakespeare himself raided fairy tales and chronicle writers, and he always looked to people who worked in the mythic genres, whether it was folk tales or popular novels.
Kenneth Branagh
#58. As soon as someone I don't respect tells me I can't do something, it just makes me want to do it even more.
Kenneth Branagh
#59. I started being interested in acting when I heard the voices of Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud and Sir Alec Guinness. I've had the great privilege of working with Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Anthony Hopkins. These are people who inspire the work that I do.
Kenneth Branagh
#60. I certainly have been guilty of trying to sweep things under the carpet.
Kenneth Branagh
#61. After Frankenstein, I feel as if I want to make a film about somebody having a nice cup of tea.
Kenneth Branagh
#64. Life is about making plans from which you deviate, almost always. If you are lucky, you do come up with a plan.
Kenneth Branagh
#65. I suppose, at 50, you value things in a different way. So you value connections, you value your friendships, you value your health, and you are much more aware of time passing.
Kenneth Branagh
#66. I think that a lot of exciting elements are finding a place where a film is happily, truly about something.
Kenneth Branagh
#67. I remember the first book I bought, when I was about 11 ... Dad said, 'What have you got that for? What are libraries for?'
Kenneth Branagh
#68. I do think that, for instance, we've been very lucky to have theatrical careers and be associated with Shakespeare which sometimes gives you a kind of bogus kudos.
Kenneth Branagh
#69. It's funny to be in rooms where you were originally referred to as 'The Shakespeare Guy' and to suddenly be in the position where you're 'The Blockbuster Guy.' That's a pretty unusual turnabout, I must say.
Kenneth Branagh
#70. Carrying a movie is both a great privilege, it's a great opportunity, but it can be a great pressure, and sometimes that can make people behave very oddly.
Kenneth Branagh
#71. I think that music is crucially important in Shakespeare - and, clearly, was an important part of the Elizabethan theatre. And, it's always been something that was a profound element of the experience of Shakespeare that I have been drawn to - and interpreters have, as well.
Kenneth Branagh
#72. I wanted to have a place and a space, and a building, in which to create a season of work I am here because the idea of a theatrical home is very appealing to me
Kenneth Branagh
#73. Certainly, I'm excited by epic subjects. It doesn't particularly frighten me.
Kenneth Branagh
#75. What you want is the opportunity to work and an audience. Prizes after that are just a great big bonus.
Kenneth Branagh
#76. I suppose that was my first bit of acting, the acquisition of an English accent. It was really just an attempt to be understood.
Kenneth Branagh
#77. I'm involved in Northern Ireland Screen and have been for a long time, so I keep my eyes open and ears to the ground.
Kenneth Branagh
#78. I did not expect to be allowed to be an actor, to be allowed to eventually direct things.
Kenneth Branagh
#81. One of the problems with Shakespeare is that you can never give him a ring.
Kenneth Branagh
#83. How many times do you read about 'the Cinderella story,' the story of the underdog, the story of the ordinary human being, often subjected to cruelty and ignorance and neglect, who somehow triumphs?
Kenneth Branagh
#84. A lot of the films I've done have links to other movies that I've directed in the past.
Kenneth Branagh
#85. The idea of accumulating ambitions or achievements didn't get much further than wanting to do the next exciting thing. I really haven't set out with any list of achievements.
Kenneth Branagh
#86. Sometimes I used to think to myself, 'Have I lost a sense of humor?' but I don't think that I have. I think one can be as snarky and sarcastic as lots of people, but I have never found that it makes me particularly happy.
Kenneth Branagh
#87. So many plays with magic in them that would be a terrific invitation to an imaginative animation team.
Kenneth Branagh
#88. Somehow I know there was something so right about my doing Frankenstein and taking so long over it that I've probably been laying some ghost inside myself. It was a very necessary job for me to do, but it'll take some time to recover from it.
Kenneth Branagh
#89. 'Jack Ryan' is a very fast-paced, very contemporary, very action-driven thriller.
Kenneth Branagh
#90. I think what you're always looking for as artists is to be honest and to continue to be honestly driven by that which you are passionately engaged with. It should need not be forced.
Kenneth Branagh
#91. I think that short films often contain an originality, a creative freedom, an energy and an invention that is inspiring and entertaining. I think they are, as Shakespeare put it, a good deed in a naughty world.
Kenneth Branagh
#92. Actually I think 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' could sit very very perfectly in the middle of a Disney world I think.
Kenneth Branagh
#93. The ferocity of passion that is engendered by people when they don't like what you've done is really tremendous. It's intense.
Kenneth Branagh
#94. I've always loved pure, silly slapstick comedy. It always makes me laugh.
Kenneth Branagh
#95. It's quite hard for people to just accept that they're very contradictory.
Kenneth Branagh
#96. One of the things that makes Hamlet unique among Shakespeare's characters is his courage to face up to the darker elements of his personality.
Kenneth Branagh
#97. I am very much looking forward to new adventures - including, I hope, Broadway - sooner rather than later.
Kenneth Branagh
#98. I don't feel in a kind of race or competition with him or anybody else, because that kind of reactive thing isn't good, or isn't useful for natural creative instincts
Kenneth Branagh
#99. The best actors, I think, have a childlike quality. They have a sort of an ability to lose themselves. There's still some silliness.
Kenneth Branagh
#100. Do you know what I feel about Dr. Who's? I feel the same way as I do about the Bonds. I love them all. I love them all! I don't have favorites.
Kenneth Branagh
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